Functional Heroin Addict interview-Matthew

It’s very strange, people keep saying “he seems like a nice guy you’d never know” SO many addict are amazing sensitive people. It’s so sad that so many people just think an addict is a bad person.

I was a functioning addict for almost ten years until I ended up in a hospital. 7 months clean and life is amazing ❤️ Edit: 2 years now ❤️ Edit: 3 years now ❤️

He looks like he was teleported directly from the 70's

It’s amazing to me that almost every interview, the person being interviewed speaks for so long after the first question. You can really tell that they’re exited to speak. Maybe for the money, maybe for the therapy. Either way, these people get to have a voice for a moment. That’s beautiful

This dude looks like he's gonna invent the personal computer

"I was never good enough for my dad" That one statement tells me everything.

I've been addicted to heroin for 11 years, after trying out psilocybin treatment I will be 2 years clean

Don’t try these drugs, people. I just went to an 18 year olds funeral and it was absolutely devastating

I was once a functioning heroin addict, until I ran out of money. Eventually, no matter how much your making, you can't keep up with the ever increasing habit. Over 2 year clean from everything now.

I was a functioning addict on oxy and fentanyl laced pills until I ran out on vacation. sober since July, 9 months sober!

Psychedelics are just an exceptional mental health breakthrough. It's quite fascinating how effective they are against depression and anxiety. Saved my life.

This guy is a really good story teller, most people overlook it but thats actually a talent not alot of people have, was engaged the whole time. ur a cool guy matt

I feel like he’s really hurt inside but he tries to hide that cause people think that he had an “easy” life, the suffering of other people don’t erase your suffering

This is a guy you end up talking to when you're a plus one at a house party. Seems sweet, kind, intelligent, funny and deeply insecure.

As a functioning heroin addict for 10 years myself, i related on so many levels with Matthew. My life was slightly different as I spent those 10 years raising my son by myself. However, "functioning" is very subjective. I worked 5 days a week and provided my son with food, shelter and love, so to others I appeared very functional. But looking back at that time I didn't grow emotionally for a decade. I lied to my family and friends for a decade. My health suffered for a decade. Close relationships were non existent for a decade. The only relationship I had was with smack. Like Matthew, my saving grace was my hatred of needles. I snorted heroin daily. An intervention by friends and family was the turning point. However, I insisted that I couldn't go to rehab because I couldn't leave my son. So, with the help of buprenorphine (a wonder drug in my mind) I kicked it on my own. 13 years clean now and my life is wonderful. I'm not full of regrets about my addiction. The catalyst for my heroin use was finding my fiance dead on my birthday to suicide. Heroin was the perfect cure to my pain. At the time it was my saving grace. However, I actually had to go through the grieving process properly after I got clean. Moral of the story: we're all different and handle things differently. Pure heroin by itself is not the devil. The black market and price of it is what causes the thieving, lying arsehole to manifest itself in most cases. Matthew seems like a lovely guy. I wish him the best of luck. I hope he makes it out the other side.

Mark’s still image of his interviewees slowly panning from top to bottom is so powerful; you really SEE the person in such a vulnerable way.

Looks like this guy came straight out of 1975.

The man is saying he's an addict and wants to quit several times.. He's not in denial. He's not praising it. He's just being honest about his journey with drugs!! Prayers for him and all suffering. And again, blessings to you Mark

I was a functioning heroin/fentanyl addict for 2 years. I’ve been clean for over a year after 3 overdoses and a year of methadone treatment. Getting off drugs was the hardest thing and probably will be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Hang in there, life gets better once you kick the bad habits.❤

These are precisely the kinds of personal projects I want to shoot. Absolutely incredible style, well made, and of course the content does all of the real heavy lifting. Love Matthew's story and just seen in the comments that you did another interview with him, surely watching that next. Really do aspire to be able to create pieces of work that document these kinds of stories to the same caliber as you one day Mark. Well done.